Features

Little donkey… the Jawa/Velorex outfit takes a rest amid the magnificent scenery of the Lake District. This month’s ‘Bit on the Side’ was going to be quite different before I decided to consign it to the waste basket – and what changed my mind was respect for a little bike that, if it were a…

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The 1938 Norton 16H was built up from a pile of bits Bikes from that era weren’t bedecked like Christmas trees with plastic and glass-fibre appendages, nor were they fitted with mirrors, indicators, electric starters, automatic chokes and the like. You pulled the machine on to its rear stand, turned on the fuel, tickled the…

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Norton Commando S Type That British factories were run on tight design margins is well known – they never really had the budget for radical new designs. When the dust cleared from the Second World War and peace returned, a different war broke out – the war for sales – and a parallel twin was…

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Many fork issues can be rectified First indication that things are not well in the suspension department is that the front end starts bouncing around and there’s a tell-tale trickle of oil dribbling down the fork leg. Okay, so it might just be the seal has gone past its sell-by date and dropping the slider…

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From the date of its first issue in 1903 until its eventual merger with Motor Cycling into newspaper form in 1967, The Motor Cycle wasn’t just a magazine – it was an institution. Among the Blue Un’s staffmen that I was fortunate enough to work alongside in the 1970s were two living legends who were…

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Rotary valve Norton The Manx engine and indeed the whole bike was in the ascendency then but even so the competition were experimenting with multi cylinders, higher revs and it would even then be obvious much work would be needed to keep the ohc unit competitive. Perhaps there was a feeling the rotary valve might…

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All change at OBM… We motorcyclists are a gregarious lot, gaining maximum enjoyment from each other’s company when we ride out together – and, with a whole new season in front of us, this is surely the best time of the year as we plan trips to places and events that we’ll be talking about…

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Early Golden Flashes being used by the Police “Why the Flash?” your scribe asked, “and not the Ducati, Trident…?” “It’s comfortable, fast enough and I trust it,” Peter replied. End of discussion. When Bert Hopwood designed the ohv parallel twin cylinder A10, his brief from the factory board must have resembled Peter’s reasoning. And the…

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Enter stage left Suzuki’s GS400 four-stroke parallel twin; the epitome of cost conscious classic Japanese motorcycling. This is a machine that will deliver you from A to B with the minimum of fuss and drama at minimal running costs. What’s more it won’t break the bank in terms of initial outlay either. Running examples can…

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Expansion chambers and disc valves rapidly transformed firstly his Suzuki sponsor’s race machinery, which aided the defection, but not long after the road-going products of Bridgestone Kawasaki and Yamaha benefited as well. Everyone will undoubtedly have their favourite of the period but inarguably Kawasaki’s 250 A1 Samurai and 350 Avenger must be some of the…

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